Dragon Delves to Return to Godsbreath, a Journey Through the Radiant Citadel Setting

Dragon Delves is returning to Godsbreath, one of the campaign settings found in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. In our interview with James Wyatt about Dragon Delves, the upcoming dragon-themed adventure, the senior D&D designer revealed that one of the upcoming adventures would be set in Godsbreath, a world first seen in the 2023 anthology book Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. The adventure, written by Erin Roberts, is called Copper for a Song, and features players trying to find the lost verse of a song that can restore the region's farmlands. As the title of the adventure suggests, the adventure involves a copper dragon.

Godsbreath is a new campaign setting created by Roberts that draws heavily from Black communities in the southern US. The region was given a gazetteer in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. The setting involves five gods coming together to rescue a community by moving them across the sea to a new land. In recent years, the land has turned against its populace for unknown reasons.

Interestingly, the adventure is also one of three that is suitable for "solo play," i.e., between one player and a DM. Since the adventure involves finding lost verses to a song, the D&D design team recommends playing through the adventure as a bard if doing a solo adventure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can't wait to hear more about this one, I'm really surprised to hear that Godsbreath is the region chosen for a dragon-based adventure.

Isn't it by the author who wrote the Godsbreath adventure in Radiant Citadel? I assume that's why.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Isn't it by the author who wrote the Godsbreath adventure in Radiant Citadel? I assume that's why.

Yeah I guess that's the entire logic right there. Purely based on which author was hired to write the new adventure and nothing to do with Godsbreath making sense as a dragon adventure. They picked a good author to return (at least based on their Written In Blood adventure) so that's as good a logic as any I suppose

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah I guess that's the entire logic right there. Purely based on which author was hired to write the new adventure and nothing to do with Godsbreath making sense as a dragon adventure. They picked a good author to return (at least based on their Written In Blood adventure) so that's as good a logic as any I suppose

Nothing in Godsbreath suggests thst there can't be dragons, or any other D&D Mohster...?

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Nothing in Godsbreath suggests thst there can't be dragons, or any other D&D Mohster...?

No one said there can't be dragons there. I don't know why you keep pretending like I said that.

 

[Parmandur]

No one said there can't be dragons there. I don't know why you keep pretending like I said that.

I'm just not sure why it seems weird? Godsbreath has cool distinct flavor, but in the context of providing took for all the classic D&D tropes, too. I could see running any of the big 5E Campaigns there.

 

[Vin St. John]

I think the connection here is between copper dragons and songs/stories/bards. That setting was big on this idea that there was an oral tradition that preserved their history in song. Isn't that the copper dragon thing? (Trading in stories)

 

[Uta-napishti]

Yes, Godsbreath was great, San Citlan also, and some of the others. They all feel rich, fresh, and about the right size and resolution for a campaign. Ironically, the named Citadel itself, portal to all these places, was the part that left me somewhat cold. Somehow tossing all these cultures together with a Ethereal Island conceit and only a few bits of shared history lost the flavor for me... I'm sure a personality would develop during a campaign there, however.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yes, Godsbreath was great, San Citlan also, and some of the others. They all feel rich, fresh, and about the right size and resolution for a campaign. Ironically, the named Citadel itself, portal to all these places, was the part that left me somewhat cold. Somehow tossing all these cultures together with a Ethereal Island conceit and only a few bits of shared history lost the flavor for me... I'm sure a personality would develop during a campaign there, however.

The lack of detail for the citadel frustrates me. I would have liked one or more adventures to have been set on the citadel, which I think could have helped give it more heft.

I started my Radiant Citadel campaign on the citadel, with the players joining the Shieldbearers at the end, but had to create all the locations and nearly all the NPCs to make it work.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

I'm just not sure why it seems weird? Godsbreath has cool distinct flavor, but in the context of providing took for all the classic D&D tropes, too. I could see running any of the big 5E Campaigns there.

Please point to where I said it was weird. All I said was that it surprised me because it was not the most obvious choice. That's a pretty bland statement and I don't get why you're acting like I'm being critical or controversial here.

To quote the actual author in her description of the Godsbreath, "People are going about their regular lives except with monsters all around them. Monsters in the water, monsters on the land... you know, I should've put some monsters in the sky". So yeah, it objectively was not an obvious choice for a location to have dragons. I bet it'll still be a good adventure though, as I said multiple times already

 

[SteveC]

So the implication is these adventures will be in several world settings and not one overarching campaign. Is that correct?